SAN MARINO – Two incumbents will square off against two challengers in the Nov. 3 election for San Marino Unified School District’s school board.

Money is on all their minds.

“The next four years, I want to focus on budgets and stabilizing the district’s finances,” said incumbent Jeng Yen, 49, an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who is seeking a second term. The budget is on everybody’s mind. We have an outstanding school district and we have to keep that going.”

Also running for re-election is C. Joseph Chang, 52,president and CEO of East Valley Hospital Medical Center. The two challengers are Nam Jack, 50, an attorney, and Linda Wu.

Wu did not return repeated calls seeking comment and her photograph for this story. According to her campaign Web site, she is a pharmacist and the mother of four children.

Two-term board member Jeanie Caldwellis vacating her seat, leaving three spots to be decided in next month’s election.

“I think the state’s budget will continue to worsen,” said Chang, a long-time San Marino resident who is running for a third board term.

The long-time San Marino resident said the state’s murky financial stability was the impetus for pulling nomination papers.

San Marino voters in May approved Measure E, a parcel tax that will raise nearly $4 million for district programs by assessing a tax of $795 per home for the next six years. Approval of the tax saved the district from cutting teaching positions, and it kept its arts and music programs intact.

Chang, who supported the parcel tax, said the board must now closely monitor district finances to ensure the programs remain in place.

Jack, 50, whose two children attend local schools, said she’s running because she, too, is concerned about the district’s long-term financial stability.

“I think the school board has done an extraordinary job of being ahead and knowing there was going to be a huge deficit,” said Jack. “I want to make sure that the district continues to meet the state’s economic problems.”